Wheelchairs must often be cleaned and disinfected when used daily in health care facilities. Dirt, food, blood, mucous, urine are typical substances that collect and build up on many parts of a wheelchair.
The construction of wheelchairs pose special problems when cleaning by hand. Various material types such as rubber, plastic, metal and vinyl, plus different sized parts and the number of inter-connecting pieces result in difficult areas to reach when cleaning.
Hand towels, scrub brushes, spray bottles, shower hoses are typical cleaning utensils that personnel use for hand cleaning. These cleaning utensils require personnel to have direct contact with the equipment when cleaning. With the increasing risk of infectious diseases that can be carried by medical equipment and the general avoidance of having direct contact with unpleasant odor and substances on the wheelchair, personnel tend to avoid thorough cleaning. These factors and conditions often lead to minimum frequency of cleaning and inconsistent quality.
General purpose pressure washers and steam cleaners are also used for wheelchair cleaning. Typically, wheelchairs are brought to special cleaning areas inside or outside a health care facility to accommodate the wide diffusing of water created by high pressure washing equipment.
While high pressure cleaning is very effective for thorough cleaning, it is disruptive to the wheelchair user since they have to be removed from the wheelchair during the day when this type of cleaning is typically scheduled and is disruptive to the facility as equipment must be transported by the staff to designated cleaning areas. High pressure cleaning typically uses very hot water and combined with pressure can dissolve grease in the wheel bearings when the spray is directed to the wheel area. Furthermore, hot water to steam temperatures used by steam cleaners and pressure washers are corrosive to metal tubing that are used in constructing wheelchairs. In addition, cleaning quality is dependent on the person using the equipment.
Cleaning outside also causes environmental concern since appropriate drains are not common in parking lots or driveways where cleaning is often done.
Therefore, what has been missing is a cleaning system for wheelchairs and potentially other durable medical equipment that provides the means for consistent cleaning quality, the convenience of cleaning wheelchairs where they are located, the use of chemicals for cleaning and disinfecting without direct contact and the automation of the cleaning process that reduces contact with the equipment and reduces personnel time to clean.